Red flags flying in this senior's case

We pause briefly in our ponderings about Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu's sex life to consider a case equally shocking (though far less titillating).

That is, how did a frail old lady named Pauline come to be giving away her house to a stranger? And not only a stranger but the person who owns the state-licensed assisted-living facility that was supposed to be taking care of her?

"That's not how the system is supposed to work," attorney Tom Asimou said. "People don't go to the hospital, get discharged to an assisted-living facility with 40 complaints and then 40 days later more than half their net worth is taken from them."

Asimou sounded the alarm last week and to its credit, Maricopa County's Probate Court sprang into action to try to protect Pauline, who has been diagnosed with dementia. Whether there is anything the court can do is an open question.

The bigger one is how a place like Golden Creek Assisted Living Home -- with 40 citations in two years and a lawsuit alleging the 2010 wrongful death of one of its residents -- is still operating, still getting patients from one of the state's most prestigious hospitals.

Alan Oppenheim, head of the Arizona Department of Health Services' licensing division, said the ADHS is investigating. Phoenix Detective Toni Brown confirmed she, too, is looking into it.

Golden Creek's owner, Maria Barbu, had no comment, and her attorney in the wrongful-death case didn't return a call.

A spokeswoman for the hospital, Mayo Clinic, says it had no involvement in selecting an assisted-living home for Pauline.

Pauline Balseiro, 78, retired to Arizona a decade ago from Malibu, Calif., where she worked in the airline industry. Her only immediate family is a daughter in California. Becky Levy says her mother was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2002 and had lately been having trouble but didn't want help.

On Oct. 13, Pauline fell in her north Phoenix home. Paramedics took her to the Mayo Clinic, and when it was time to be discharged, a social worker with Caring Options, a senior-placement service, recommended two assisted-living homes. Pauline chose Golden Creek, because it was nearer to her neighbor and closest friend, Diana Toma.

Almost immediately, Toma and Levy began having trouble making contact with Pauline. Toma says that she would drop by Golden Creek and that Barbu would offer various reasons why she couldn't see Pauline. When Toma did get to see her, she says Pauline seemed scared.

"She told me one day, when I finally did get to see her, that she could hear me (on a previous visit) but they wouldn't let her come to the door," Toma said.

Levy says that in order to talk to her mother, she had to call Barbu, who would tell her to wait 15 minutes, then call another number. Her mother, she said, would slur her words and tell her the call was being monitored.

"Every time I talked to her on the phone, she said, 'I have an audience, they are listening,' " Levy said. "Red flags went up everywhere."

Those red flags would soon be waving wildly. On Nov. 18, four weeks after moving into Golden Creek, Pauline deeded over her Tatum Ranch house to Maria Barbu and her daughter, Anita Georgiana Barbu. This in exchange for "care taking services," according to a document filed with the Maricopa County Recorder's Office.

Almost immediately, Toma says, the house was gutted and remodeled, with many of Pauline's possessions boxed up and carted away.

Meanwhile, in late December, Levy says Chase Bank called her to report that they'd stopped payment on a $2,500 check to Golden Creek from Pauline's account, believing the check had been forged.

Levy says she began calling Arizona authorities in January and soon after, Barbu moved herself, her daughter and Pauline into the Tatum Ranch house. Her mother, she says, no longer will speak to her or to Toma, who estimates that Pauline had lost weight from her former 82-pound frame when she last saw her several weeks ago.

"She's been brainwashed, and she's deathly afraid of being thrown out in the gutter and not having anywhere to go," Levy said. "This is what Maria told her is going to happen to her."

Levy contacted Jane Anne Geisler, a fiduciary who last week filed an emergency petition to become Pauline's temporary guardian. Commissioner David Cunanan granted the petition on Feb. 13. That afternoon, Geisler and attorney Asimou filed a lawsuit, hoping to have Pauline's property returned.

A hearing is set for Thursday before Judge Alfred Fenzel.

Meanwhile, Pauline continues to live with Barbu in her home -- or what used to be her home, that is.